Project Considerations
Any research projects has a range of considerations that must be taken into account before, during and after the testing has been conducted. Covered here are any relevant considerations that played a part in this project.
Sustainability
Sustainability is a topic that grows in importance with every day that passes. Whilst my project is not directly related to sustainability or sustainable practices, there are ways I which I can incorporate sustainability into both the running of my product and game scenario.
Albert Award
As part of our work during the second term we were expected to work towards achieving a BAFTA Albert Award (BAFTA 2023) in relation to our project. As part of achieving this, I first used the emissions calculator on Albert to calculate the C02 emissions related to the project. Based on the result from the Albert calculator I then made a pledge on how I can improve my emissions in relation to the project. Following the emissions calculation and the pledge, I then provided multiple ways in which I can incorporate a pro-sustainability messages into the 3D first-person game scenario I'm developing.
Ethics and GDPR
Ethics and GDPR need thorough consideration when conducting a research project. Ensuring that participants feel safe and understand the nature of the test they are taking part in is of paramount importance. The main test will be distributed with a participant information sheet so that participants know what they are taking part in. The sheet will detail the nature of the test, outline participants' right to withdraw, and confirm their data will be held in-line with standard GDPR regulations. Whilst the test is safe and relatively simple, its still important to make sure participants are as comfortable as possible.
As the survey is hosted on Microsoft Forms (Microsoft 2016), all data is stored on OneDrive (Microsfot 2007), which is both encrypted and protected by a 2-factor authenticator password.
Distribution
In order to get the ideal responses for the study, it is crucial to outline how the test was distributed. The test was distributed in two main ways. The first method of distribution was to utilise university data collection days. This involved having a station prepped in a classroom with the testing files and links to other necessary content. These days only happened a few times but they were key for both my pilot and main testing. The second method of distribution involved using less official channels on forums such as Reddit (Reddit Inc 2022) and Discord (Discord Inc 2022) that I am a part of. Through using mixed methods of distribution I could ensure I was more likely to achieve the goal of between 20-40 respondents.
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Distribution was not as smooth as I would have liked. Distribution via Discord (Discord Inc 2022) and the data collection days went well, garnering a decent amount of responses. The same can not be said for the planned Reddit (Reddit Inc 2022) distrbution; owing to my lack of knowledge of karma requirements for posting on certain subreddits. Karma is Reddit's "points" system attained from likes on posts, many subreddits require posters to have a certain number of these points prior to posting. I was not aware of this, and due to my lack of any karma on the site I was unable to utilise this as a method of distribution. This problem is a direct result of my lack of testing with regards to my distribution methods, and was ultimately detrimental to the overall number responses and by extension detrimental to my achievement of the project outcomes as a whole.